s
i
ANANBIOANAL - 2010
Pharmaceutical R & D Summit
doi:10.4172/2155-9872.1000044
Potential of Phyllanthus spp Cocktails as Anticancer Agents in its
Natural State
Shamala Devi Sekaran
Dept of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
C
ancer is a group of diseases that arise from uncontrolled growth, spread of
an abnormal cell and can result in death. The inefficiency (Tong et al, 1995)
to treat several distinct classes of tumours led researchers to source for potential
natural-based therapeutic compounds. Many Botanists (Etta, 2008) believed that
the extract of P. niruri, (30 - 40 cm in height) originated from India by late of 1980s
showed pharmacological, clinical efficacy against viral Hepatitis B (Padma et al.,
1999; Paranjpe, 2001; Blumberg et al., 1990; Venkateswaran et al., 1987) anti-
bacterial activity (Mazumder et al., 2006); Kloucek et al., 2005), anti-hepatotoxic or
liver-protecting activity (Houghton et al., 1996; Rajeshkumar et al., 2000; Jeena et
al., 1999), as well as anti-tumor and anti-carcinogenic properties (Rajeshkumar et
al., 2001). In addition, it also exhibits hypoglycaemia properties (Mazunder et al.,
2005; Raphael et al., 2002).
The objective of the present study determines the cytotoxic effect of Phyllanthus
extracts (aqueous and methanol) on growth inhibition against skin melanoma and
prostate cancer cells in their cell cycle could partially explain its mode of activity
and proliferation effect with apoptosis induction and cell cycle modulation. From the
results, Phyllanthus plant appears to possess antiproliferative (cytotoxic) properties
against breast, lung, melanoma and prostate cancer cells with IC50
values ranging
between 150–400 µg/ml for the aqueous extract and 50–150 µg/ml for the metha-
nolic extract which were determined using the MTS reduction assay. In compari-
son, the plant extracts did not show significant cytotoxicity on normal human cells
(breast, lung, skin (CRL-2565) and prostate (RWPE-1) cells). This indicates that
Phyllanthus is one step closer to being a suitable candidate for the development of
effective anticancer drugs.
ANALBIOANAL-2010
O
M
I
C
S
P
i
u
h
b
l
n
g
G
r
o
u
p